MURDER, KIDNAPPING TRIAL OPENS FOR GANG SUSPECTS

Two in cartel-like group committed ‘horrific’ crimes, prosecutor says

San Diego 
A seemingly ordinary two-story home in Paradise Hills became a “house of horrors” when members of a criminal organization known as Los Palillos used it to stash away their kidnapping victims, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

The house on Garber Avenue was where two men were bound and held captive for more than two weeks in 2007 while family members gathered money to pay ransom. And it was where they were strangled to death, their bodies stuffed into 55-gallon barrels and dissolved in acid.

“It’s torturous. It’s horrific, and that’s what these defendants participated in,” said Deputy District Attorney Mark Amador during his opening statement.

The defendants — Jose Olivera Beritan and David Valencia — are on trial in San Diego Superior Court facing charges including conspiracy to commit kidnapping for ransom and murder, with gang and gun-use allegations.

Amador spent most of the day discussing what evidence he believed would be presented in trial. Defense attorneys Herbert Weston and William Wolfe, who represent Olivera and Valencia respectively, will give their opening statements today.

The defendants are among a group of people accused of being members of Los Palillos, which means “the toothpicks” in Spanish. The crew was once linked to the Arellano Félix Organization in Tijuana, but it went rogue when its leader was killed by the cartel’s leaders.

Los Palillos set up in San Diego around 2003 and started committing cartel-style crimes here, the prosecutor said.

Amador told the jury that on Jan. 3, 2007, Olivera participated in the attempted kidnapping of a man at an apartment complex in Bonita. The man was shot in his shoulder but was able to get away.

In March of that year, Olivera took part in the robbery and slaying of Ivan Lozano Valdez, whose body was found in the trunk of a stolen sedan abandoned in Clairemont, Amador said. Toothpicks were found on and around his body.

In May 2007, both defendants participated in the abduction of Cesar Uribe, a drug trafficker, and a man who was with him that day, Marc Leon, the prosecutor said.

Two years later, investigators were led to a location in San Ysidro, where Valencia leased land and kept horses.

There they found the victims’ remains, including teeth and bones, buried in the earth.

The defendants are also accused in the 2007 kidnapping of a wealthy businessman, who was held for eight days at a house in Chula Vista. Federal agents raided the home in June 2007 and rescued the victim.